Opinion: 'Attempts to silence artists will provoke response that will deal heavy blow to Ivanishvili’s regime'

Repressions against artists in Georgia

The founder of the Centre for Strategic Analysis, Giorgi Rukhadze, responded to the dismissal of David Doiashvili from his post as artistic director of the Vaso Abashidze Theatre, noting that this is an attempt by the dictatorial regime to suppress freedom of speech and the arts.

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After actively participating in the protests, David Doiashvili was dismissed from his position as director of the Vaso Abashidze Theatre. Doiashvili and the theatre’s actors had been outspoken in demanding the release of political prisoners. On 23 January 2025, they presented a manifesto in which Doiashvili announced plans to tour the regions with the theatre.

Giorgi Rukhadze:

“When a country is undergoing a process of establishing dictatorship and consolidating autocracy, the biggest threat to the regime is free thinking and free people. And such people are most often found in artistic spaces.

That is why regimes like this try to suppress and subjugate freedom of speech, talent, and art. I am certain that this will not succeed. It will provoke a strongly negative response that will inflict far more damage on Ivanishvili’s regime than he can imagine.

Who is Tika Rukhadze (Minister of Culture — JAMnews) to tell Doiashvili where to work, what to do or not to do, what to stand for? I am ashamed to share the same surname as her. Everything that’s happening is entirely logical and fits the script typical of dictatorial regimes.

At every turn, we see that the Ivanishvili regime is an ordinary tyranny. There is no longer any meaningful difference — other than scale — between the regimes of Putin and Ivanishvili, Lukashenko and Ivanishvili.

Ivanishvili’s regime no longer worries about electoral matters, because it is confident that from now on, there will be no more democratic elections in Georgia. Consequently, it doesn’t care how many people are outraged by its actions. The regime is only interested in money and power.”